The zone of Bonifacio, inhabited since the prehistory, you/he/she can boast the privilege to be the place of recovery of the most ancient woman in Corsica. The finished excavations to Araguina-Sennola, to the entrance of the city, you/they have brought a female skeleton denominated " her Dame of Bonifacio to the light ", going up again to 6570 to.C. (preneolitico). It deals with the most ancient trace of human presence in the Corsica.
The place was also inhabited to the times of the Greek and the Romans; in fact, to some kilometer of distance from the city, next to the Head Spur, during some excavations they have been open the dejected walls of a great and splendid Roman (Piantarella) villa, testimony of the existence of an important center of activity in the I° sec. d.C. The pond of Spur, silted not far, today, it was in the antiquity an I bring.
The history of the city, however, begins only in the 828, when Bonifacio, marquis of Tuscany, gave his/her own name to the village. Become well soon common, for some centuries it lived of piracy. Pisa and Genoa aimed to take possession of this I bring natural, stings neuralgic for the control of the western Mediterranean, but they were the Genoeses to astutely infiltrate on the place in 1187 and to found you, 8 years later, a colony. The city to which Genoa had conferred numerous privileges, became a kind of autonomous republic, in degree even to beat coin and it always maintained an absolute fidelity towards the Superb one.
The strategic importance of the famous rocky promontory, however, attracted the European sovereign principals, that, in more occasions, encircled of siege the city, particularly in 1420 and in 1553. In 1420, Alfonso V in Aragon, founding himself/herself/itself on pope Bonifacio VIII's action, that had granted Corsica as feud to his/her father Giacomo II, it vindicated the possession of the island and for well five months it tightened of siege Bonifacio. The Aragonese soldiers occupied the I bring, preventing every earth restocking; they blocked besides the mouth of it with a thick iron chain, the attempts of external help making so vain to besieges him. Despite the deprivations, the bonifacesis showed an exceptional courage and, among them, the women developed a role of first floor. According to the legend, the Spanish soldiers cut on the side of the South bluff a stairway of 187 steps, for power sferrare an attack away sea to besieges him. In truth, this staircase " of the King of Aragon " had previously been realized by the inhabitants of Bonifacio to be able to enter to a well. Thanks to the vigilance of Margherita Bobbia, of watch in that occasion, the attack failed. To this brave woman, distinguished him during the siege for his/her bravery, a street you/he/she was devoted, to East of the city. At the end, Genoa succeeded in bringing help to his/her colony and Alfonso V in Aragon it was forced to remove the siege.
In 1553, 25 years after the great epidemic of plague (1528) that killed the two bystanders of the population, the city owed suffer a new siege; it was, in fact, the turn of the king of France Henry II, whose troops, supported by the fleet of the Turkish pirate Dragut, for well 18 days and 18 nights took to cannonades the city. To the dawn of the last day, the bonifacesis owed reject three consecutive attacks. The whole population, inclusive clergy, women and children, participated in the fight with such a determination to almost be induced Dragut to raise the siege. Nevertheless the pirate succeeded in defeating besieges him and to take revenge only thanks to an ignoble deception. Domenico Cattaciolo, of return from Genoa with 15.000 shields destined to withstand the siege, you/he/she was captured by Dragut and soon it convinced him to stick to the frank-Turkish cause. You introduced to his/her fellow citizens with a fallacious letter in which Genoa confessed his/her own incapability to lend them help. The bonifacesis resigned then him to surrender in exchange for to have it saves the life and the good. But, not as soon as the doors of the city were open, the pirate, contravening to the word dates, it began a fierce looting and it massacred the garrison as well as some civil ones. The intervention they were necessary of Sampiero Corso, promoter besides of the fatal frank-Turkish alliance and the money of the marshal de Thermes to induce Dragut to save Bonifacio and to leave.
In the XIX sec., it frequently enough happened that a raced bandit, sought by the justice, it passed the Mouths of Bonifacio and it was sheltered in Sardinia; peer trip, in inverse sense, you/he/she was taken place besides by the Sardinian bandits. It was often verified also that the people made only return on his/her own island to commit a new crime and then to divide, once more escaping the law. This traffic became so frequent to induce the authorities of the two countries in 1819 and in 1843, to arrange the extradition of the respective outlaw and the overseeing of the Mouths of Bonifacio with military ships. Bonifacio possesses the particular characteristic to have preserved in the time an own language, " the bonifacese ", of ancient Genoese origin, today spoken still by some hundred inhabitants.
